Tag Archives: Tybee Island

Solar power is here right now. Georgia is #10 in the nation (up from #22 in 2017)
by solar deployed (1,552.98 MW) and #7 in projected growth,
according to
the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA).
That’s ahead of Florida, but still behind much farther north New Jersey and Massachusetts, which have less sun.

People are starting to wake up as the solar sun rises above their horizon.
This could be the year the Georgia legislature finally passes a bill
to amend the law that inhibits solar financing.
Even the City of Valdosta seems suddenly interested in helping with that.

Early adopter Creighton Rosental of Macon is what you’d call a solar
pioneer. The early adopter said that he had the 4-kilowatt panels
installed on the backyard side of his roof about five years ago.
Two-thirds of the upfront cost—about $30,000—was covered
by a federal tax credit and a Georgia state credit.

“They built a frame and mounted it to the roof, which was a
substantial fairly substantial enterprise.” Rosental said.

The renourishment process involves using a cutterhead dredge to move
about 1.7 million cubic yards of high quality sand from an area
located 1.5 miles from the southern tip of Tybee Island. The
deposited sand would be enough to compensate for the erosion
expected to occur over the subsequent nine years. The project will
include placing sand up to the north terminal groin. This northern
area was included in previous renourishment cycles, but not the 2008
renourishment.

“It is good news,” said Tybee council member Paul Wolff.
“Obviously we depend on the beach for our economy. Everything
that gets done to move the process forward helps. We’re optimistic
we’ll get the federal cost share again.”

Hm, I wonder if this contact information would work for other projects: Continue reading →

Maybe Lowndes County could also welcome tourists instead of using
them as a ticketing revenue stream
that’s costing us $200,000 to process.
And maybe both Lowndes County and Valdosta could put their
agenda packets online like tiny
(population 3,067) Tybee Island does.

Tybee Island has decided that the National Security Agency isn’t a model worth following. On Monday, The coastal city’s council retracted its approval of a pair of license plate scanners intended to greet tourists. From
the Savannah Morning News:

Citing mostly negative feedback from the public and concerns over how the information from the scanners would translate to a tourism study being conducted by a local professor, the council instead voted to purchase a higher quality model of the current hose-like vehicle counter the city has stretched over U.S. 80.

Savannah and Jacksonville are among the east coast cities most vulnerable
to rising sea levels due to climate change, a study finds.
Savannah, Georgia’s main seaport, with storm surges, hurricanes,
and waves on top:
what will that look like?

A
study published last March by Climate Central found sea-level rise
due to global warming had already doubled the risk of extreme flood
events — so-called once in a century floods — for dozens
of locations up and down the Atlantic and Pacific coasts.

It singled out the California cities of Los Angeles and San Diego on
the Pacific coast and Jacksonville, Florida, and Savannah, Georgia,
on the Atlantic, as the most vulnerable to historic flooding due to
sea-level rise.

Sandy, which produced a 9ft storm surge at Battery Park in New York
City, produced one example of the dangerous combination of storm
surges and rising sea level. In New York, each additional foot of
water puts up to 100,000 additional people at risk, according to a
map published with the study.

Paul Wolff said we have a potential for 14.5 gigawatts off the Georgia coast,
without interfering with shipping lanes or the ocean ecology.
He noted big wind turbines need everything down to ball bearings,
much of which can be (and some already is) produced in Georgia.
LAKE blog readers know Paul Wolff
as somebody who has put his money where his mouth is, with
solar on his roof.

With a month of negotiations still remaining, Chatham County has given up on working solely with the eight municipalities to determine how an estimated $600 million in Local Option Sales Tax revenue should be split up during the next 10 years.

Chatham County Chairman Pete Liakakis requested Tuesday night that a third party be brought in immediately to help determine distributions, instead of waiting the full 60 days available to reach an agreement before mediation is required.

“I believe the parties are so far apart, that the current process is at an impasse,” Liakakis said.

Liakakis said a proposal presented by the cities two weeks ago that would lower the county's share by about 7 percent while boosting the municipalities' portion was flawed because it is built around the concept that the county's share should be based on the residents living outside city limits.

“It ignores the fact that the county provides services to all citizens of the county,” he said.